Starch

Mrs. Anne Turner, half-milliner, half-procuress, introduced
into England the French custom of using yellow starch in getting up
bands and cuffs. She trafficked in poison, and being concerned in the
murder of St. Thomas Overbury, appeared on the scaffold with a huge
ruff. This was done by Lord Coke's order, and was the means of putting
an end to this absurd fashion.

“I shall never forget poor Mistress Turner, my honoured patroness,
peaco be with her! She had the ill-luck to meddle in the matter of
Somerse, and Overbury, and so the great earl and his had slipt their
necks out of the collar, and left their and some half-dozen others to
suffer in their stead.” —SirWalterScott: Fortanes of Nigel, viii.